E-Mail This Article to a Friend Are the Sox better off? BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

THERE HAVE been plenty of chances to look back and think nice thoughts about the 2004 Red Sox season; for now, though, we’ll take a hard, cold, stark look at the potential 2005 edition.

Simply put, can the team that GM Theo Epstein and Co. have thus far put together hold a menorah to last season’s championship-winning squad?

In the pitching department, that remains to be seen, since the free-agent and trade market is far from settled. But two of Boston’s frontline starters are pretty much gone — Pedro Martinez has taken a big-money offer from the Mets, and Derek Lowe apparently has refused arbitration — and therefore the Sox will have two empty spots, along with two premium picks in next spring’s amateur draft. Boston has filled one of those slots with 41-year-old David Wells (who will at minimum add to the team's jocularity quotient), while Lowe’s spot is still up for grabs. Will Epstein find a mystery man to adequately replace Lowe? Well, if you’re talking about the Lowe who stumbled through the 2004 regular season, then practically anybody at the Sox’ minor-league level could do that; if you’re talking about the Lowe of the post-season, well, that’s a bit dicier. The lanky sinkerballer was lights-out in the playoffs — winning all three series-clinchers — but that methodical excellence was rarely on display consistently during the course of the season.

As of this writing, the Yanks had reportedly ensnared Randy Johnson while the Sox reportedly were still pursuing pitching candidates such as the Marlins’ A.J. Burnett, LA’s Odalis Perez, and even Philly’s Eric Milton, but they’ll all be expensive. Left-hander John Halama signed with the Sox on Wednesday, but he’s envisioned as more of a setup guy than a starter (although injuries could always press him into duty).

And what about Pedro? Frankly, I’m not sorry to see him go. Even though a lot of us around here have fond memories of big-game performances in the past seven years, his act off the field was getting truly tiresome. Sure, he got through this past season without missing a start to injury, but was it any surprise that this rare occurrence happened during his contract year? The Sox brass were wise at first to not give him more than a two-year offer, and their generosity in giving him three should have realistically been enough to keep him. Alas, just as predicted, Pedro used other teams to jack up his price, and despite a local Dominican community that adored him, family nearby, and a championship team to which he would have returned, $40 million was not enough to cancel out the so-called lack of respect he "endured."

(Pedro even had the nerve in his introductory press conference on Thursday to claim the Red Sox "waited until the last minute" to offer him a contract. Huh? I seem to remember that once spring training ended, he didn’t want to negotiate at all during the regular season — as if inking him to an extension in March after his rough spring-training outings would have been prudent. Martinez did receive a legitimate two-year offer from the club within two weeks after World Series, but he chose to eschew that and instead sought out Steinbrenner, Jeter, and A-Rod instead, in hopes of pitching in the Bronx. Instead, he'll end up cross-town in Flushing Meadows with nearly $54 million of the Metropolitans' moolah.)

In the end, the $90 million that Pedro has already earned, along with $40 million more for the next three seasons, was deemed insufficient to make up for perceived past slights and keep him in Boston. Instead, he’ll go to a foundering franchise, which will realize its spectacular mistake ’long about September — and the Mets will still be on the hook for three more years and $40 mil. All we can say to Petey is thanks and good riddance. The clubhouse and the sanity of the coaching staff will likely be better off.

With the money they saved, the Sox managed to reel in one of baseball’s marquee players: shortstop Edgar Renteria. Like Pedro, he rejected a solid situation and instead followed the money, but his off-field reputation is much more positive than Martinez’s, and the two-time Gold Glover has less baggage and is at least going to a better team. The Sox are hopeful the next piece of the puzzle is the re-signing of free-agent catcher Jason Varitek, who is idolized in this town but is beginning to look like another wearer of the green-colored glasses, as his agent’s demands to this point are borderline ridiculous. Nonetheless, there seem to be few other suitors for Tek’s services, and most feel he will stay if the per-annum dollar figure is upped a bit. (Of course, I also believed Pedro would stay, but his psyche has never been as grounded as Varitek’s.)

Simply put, the Sox right now are nearly as good as they were last season, and perhaps losing the two starters to free agency will be viewed as addition by subtraction down the road. And while there remain some holes to fill, nobody around here doubts that Theo will solve the problem in due time.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com.